Blog about politics (mideast and pro-Israel, Canadian and local Montreal), world events, and random thoughts.

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The World I Know is updated on a semi-regular basis by segacs.

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9:55 PM
No surprises here

Hezbollah's latest cheerleader? None other than George Galloway:



Who's surprised? (Hat tip: Eric).

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2:27 AM
"Educational crackdown" in Iran

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is taking more steps to stamp out dissent and reform in Iran:

Iran's hard-line president urged students Tuesday to push for a purge of liberal and secular university teachers, another sign of his determination to strengthen Islamic fundamentalism in the country.

With his call echoing the rhetoric of the nation's 1979 Islamic revolution, Ahmadinejad appears determined to remake Iran by reviving the fundamentalist goals pursued under the republic's late founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Iran still has strong moderate factions, and since taking office a year ago Ahmadinejad has moved to replace pragmatic veterans in the government and diplomatic corps with former military commanders and inexperienced religious hard-liners. His administration also has launched crackdowns on independent journalists, Web sites and bloggers.

Hey Mahmoud, what's wrong? Can't stand the blogging competition?

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1:57 AM
Another Jewish school firebombing

Just a year and a half after UTT St-Laurent was firebombed, another Jewish school was attacked last Friday night, when someone threw a Molotov cocktail through the window.

The Orthodox Jewish boys' school in Outremont already had enhanced its security, along with the other Jewish schools in the city, after the UTT incident. The attack was caught on video, though the assailant's face wasn't recognizable.

Several prominent people have already denounced the incident, including Quebec government representatives. The CJC is urging authorities to treat this as a hate crime, though police are still investigating and further evidence will surely be required to support this theory, obvious as it may seem on the surface.

Now, it seems that security will have to be upgraded even further, and additional funds will be needed to accomplish all this. Last time around, the community raised huge sums of money, and gifts poured in to rebuild the destroyed school library from people such as Russell Crowe, even. But this year, with such a priority being placed on rushing emergency funds to Israel, it may be tougher to address these needs at home, coming as they do at a time when schools are reopening and anxious parents have to worry not only about homework and extracurriculars, but about the safety of their children while in the classroom.

It's sickening to me that, right here in Montreal, grade school children should require extra security. Children ought to be off limits. Period. But this hasn't ever been the case in Israel, and it is no longer the case here at home.

If there was any justice in the world, the perpetrators of these disgusting crimes would be made to pay for the additional security requirements. But it doesn't work that way. Instead, we'll keep paying for more cameras and guards and security measures, while people keep committing hateful acts. I don't particularly like to think about where this road leads.

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12:08 AM
Celestial musings

So is it a planet or isn't it? Pluto's dubious status continues to cause debate among scientists, stargazers, and a lot of people with nothing better to do.

In the meantime, it seems they're filming a movie in my neighbourhood. This struck me as more than a little odd when I passed by the orange signs, since I can't even begin to fathom why anyone would choose my area - good for cheap rent, not much good for atmosphere - for a film location. So I checked out the information on the signs. The film, it seems, has a working title of "Neptune" - which, as far as I know, is definitely still a planet. No information about it appears yet on IMDb, as far as I can tell.

Oh, and a European space probe crashed into the moon yesterday. Seems this was designed to satisfy people who'd become bored with "World's Scariest Police Chases" and spectacular NASCAR crashes.

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10:12 PM
RIP Steve Irwin

I was away over the long weekend so I didn't hear the news until last night. Steve Irwin was a real Australian icon. Though he had his fans and his critics in life, his death has sent shock waves through the world. A real tragedy.

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